SWARTZ CREEK - David Garcia began a 55-mile journey on foot Thursday afternoon that would bring him to Lansing in an effort to draw attention to gay rights.

After a stop at MSU this morning, Garcia planned to hold a 9 a.m. rally at the state Capitol.

Five hours into the trek from this small city near Flint, Garcia reported via cell phone that his legs were a little sore.

“The walk itself is keeping me warm,” he said laughing. “I’m doing well, right now.”

Garcia wore a backpack with water and trail mix, and his father and a church group - maybe his biggest supporters at the moment - followed him by car with sandwiches and supplies.

Strong supporters and opposition alike attended his send-off at Swartz Creek High School.

With school workers listening from doorways, students yelling obscenities with loud speakers as they drove by and a crowd of almost 40 students and community members, Garcia explained why he was setting off on foot into the freezing night air.

“When I told my boss that the word ‘faggot’ was being used too openly in the halls of the schools here, he said it’s been said for years,” Garcia told the group.

The former Swartz Creek community services director announced in a September Flint Journal article that he would ask permission to start a gay and lesbian student group at the high school. That’s also when he came out about his sexuality.

Garcia said his work environment became hostile after revealing he was gay, resulting in his resignation.

“Dr. Townsend, the superintendent, says I blindsided him,” Garcia said. “Well, you can’t walk through life with blinders on and then claim to be blindsided.”

Carrie Copeland, a co-director of MSU’s Alliance of Lesbian-Bi-Gay and Transgendered Students, said Garcia’s message is valuable for all students - gay or straight.

“I think the most important thing we can learn from him is his bravery,” Copeland said. “It’s important for everyone to be honest with the people in their lives.”

She said there’s still work to be done to get equal rights for the LBGT community.

“Yes, you can still be forced to resign for this sort of thing, and yes, you can be fired for it,” Copeland said. “There are probably LBGT students in that school who got a wake-up call when they came out in that environment as well.

“I really wish my high school had some kind of support group because it was really scary when I came out.”

Rob McCullough, a junior at Swartz Creek High School, said Garcia’s resignation and pending lawsuit, now in federal court, have divided his community.

“Some students are starting to think it’s getting ridiculous,” McCullough said. “It seems like (Garcia is) doing things just to get attention now and get known.

“The people already against gays get even more close-minded and some are really in support of gays.”

Swartz Creek Mayor Dennis Allen doesn’t think Garcia’s resignation and rally are having such a strong effect on the community.

“As the mayor, I would say there’s not a problem,” Allen said. “It’s really just turned into a fiasco between him and the school.

“We can’t control what the school did. I can’t say what they did was right or not. All I know is that he did a fairly good job as far as the city was concerned.”

Allen doesn’t think people have made Garcia a topic of conversation because, “we’re up-to-date people out here in Swartz Creek.”

Garcia called for anti-discrimination laws and support groups for gay and lesbian students, saying students have told him about the discrimination and violence they were subject to after they came out.

Cassie Romanowski graduated from Swartz Creek High in June and spoke about the persecution she endured as a lesbian student.

“I’ve known since the second grade I was a lesbian,” Romanowski said. “At school people yelled at me and threw things at me.

“Right here, right now, we’re trying to prove that we don’t choose this. We’re proud of who we are, but we don’t choose it.”

Tensions and voices sometimes rising, students listened and questioned Romanowski and others about what it’s like to be gay.

“I know guys that people assume to be gay,” said 17-year-old junior Jason Kikta. “They act gay and make themselves look gay.

“It’s not the way the Lord intended it, this guy marching to Lansing with a church banner.”

Kikta said he doesn’t understand gays, but he doesn’t discriminate.

Considering the possibility of a support group for gays at his school, Kikta said he understands how difficult it must be for gays to come out and doesn’t think a support group would be accepted easily.

“Some gay teachers and gay students together? Students and some parents wouldn’t like that,” he said. “Many parents probably don’t even know their kids are gay.

“Man, my dad would kick my